If you had to kill three people to save your best friend's life, would you do it?When John Rain decides to get out of the business, his hand is forced by rogue CIA operative Jim Hilger. Hilger kidnaps Dox, Rain's trusted partner and closest friend, and offers Rain a choice: carry out a final assignment, or bear the responsibility for Dox's murder.For a professional like John Rain, the choice ought to be easy: Do the job-a series of three hits-then walk away. But how does Rain know Jim Hilger won't kill Dox anyway, once the assignment is complete? How does he know that each of the hits isn't simultaneously a setup for Rain himself? And what will he do when he finds out that among the targets of this lethal game of extortion is someone else Rain cares about deeply?From the urban canyons of Silicon Valley and New York to the lush forests of Bali, the boulevards of Paris, and the old killing fields of Vietnam, Rain must grapple with his age, his enemies, and most of all,... Views: 70
London 1817. Captain Lacey agrees to track down the missing necklace of a society matron and prove the innocence of her maid, who has been arrested for its theft. He recruits Lady Breckenridge to infiltrate the matron's household, and finds himself competing with the underworld criminal, James Denis, for the necklace's retrieval. This is a ten-chapter (25,000 word) novella. Views: 70
Andy McNab's thrillers have been enormously successful, and Dark Winter will no doubt allow his publishers to add more noughts to his already impressive sales figures. McNab's secret is reliability. He always delivers the kind of high-octane thrills his readers expect and seems immune to the hit-or-miss syndrome that afflicts so many thriller writers. Dark Winter has the tough (and battered) Nick Stone back in business, still parleying the skills he learnt in the SAS into his new role as a Special Intelligence Service operative. Al-Qaeda are concentrating their forces in south-east Asia (McNab is as topical as ever), and Nick is sent by the CIA to deal with one of Osama bin Laden's most dangerous biochemists. But Nick is given a female partner, and the mission takes unexpected turns. Back in the US, and struggling with the problems of being guardian to an orphaned girl, Nick finds a whole nest of terrorists plotting atrocities in both the US and the UK, and his involvement becomes (against his will) very personal indeed. As always, the mixture here is incandescent, punctuating steadily accelerating narrative trajectory with stunningly orchestrated bursts of action at frequent intervals. McNab's characterisation of anyone other than the resourceful Nick is serviceable rather than detailed, but this is a strategy to ensure that the principal ingredient here--bone-crunching action--is always foregrounded. It may be a while since McNab was an SAS man himself, but the tradecraft is always coolly plausible, and McNab fans can count on getting their money's worth. Views: 70
A lawyer gets caught in the crossfire of a deadly civil war in Africa Richard Deaken has lost his nerve. Once a globally renowned trial lawyer, he has suffered a string of bad results that have sapped his confidence and dulled the edge necessary for success in the high-stakes world of international law. Resigned to life in obscurity, he has retreated to an unimpressive office in Geneva, where the trickle of low-paying clients doesn't come close to supporting the lifestyle that he—and his wife—are used to. But a big case is right around the corner. Deaken's new employers are soldiers in a vicious African civil war on the brink of erupting into unprecedented bloodshed. An order of $50 million worth of arms is on its way to his client's opponents, and to stop it they have kidnapped the arms dealer's son. They ask Deaken to negotiate the ransom—the guns in exchange for the child—and he cannot say no, because the guerillas have also kidnapped his wife. ... Views: 70
After a vicious attack at the opening of an art exhibit, Tom and Scott must navigate a maelstrom of death and destruction where they may be the killer's next victims.When an elderly gay man with a lifetime of fear and pain behind him approaches Tom Mason with an intriguing story, Tom has no idea that he and his husband Scott Carpenter will be plunged into an anti-gay conspiracy and a maelstrom of death. They race against time and a deadly killer who may have both of them in his cross-hairs. Views: 70
For Amy Wilkes, it's a dream come true! Discovered by Martin Tafft, she will star in his upcoming epic, One and Only. Charlie Fox, another natural who also stars in the movie. On screen, sparks fly between Amy and Charlie. Off screen, they're caught up in a real-life drama, in which they're both tempted--and tested--in more ways than one. Views: 70
Thou Shalt Not Suffer Rowan Gant To Live... In February of 2001, serial killer Eldon Andrew Porter, following the tenets of the Malleus Maleficarum, tortured and subsequently murdered several innocent people - his own modern day Witch hunt. He narrowly escaped apprehension by the Greater Saint Louis Major Case Squad. In December of the same year, he returned to Saint Louis bent on revenge. Views: 70
Alabama police detective Cooper Devereaux chases a cunning serial killer terrorizing the city of Birmingham in this edge-of-your-seat thriller for readers of James Lee Burke, Craig Johnson, and Robert Crais. A woman disappears on her twenty-first birthday. The following day her body is found, wrapped neatly like a gift in a crumbling, sun-speckled graveyard. What does Detective Devereaux have to go on? Very little. No motive, no suspects. Then another victim is discovered in a crematorium parking lot. Again, she was killed on her twenty-first birthday. Again, her body was wrapped like a gift. By the third murder the tabloids have dubbed the homicidal monster the Birthday Killer—and Devereaux is under the gun. While Devereaux's own violent and mysterious past nips at his heels, and his fragile home life threatens to unravel, he can't afford to be anything but totally obsessed with the frantic search through the many layers of this city, from its... Views: 70
Mel Odom's award winning quest fantasy The Rover was hailed as a successor to the legacy of Tolkien and Terry Brooks. The tale of "Wick" the lowly librarian who rises to the occasion and becomes a great adventurer struck a chord with adventure lovers and fantasy fans alike. After his adventures on the mainland Wick returned to his duties at the Vault of All Known Knowledge and quickly worked his way up the hierarchy , continuing his quest for the preservation of books and the knowledge contained therein. And now that quest is threatened. The Destruction of the Books It is many years later and lowly Wick is now Grandmagister Lamplighter of the Great Library. His trips to the mainland are fewer due to his advanced age, and lately he has enlisted an assistant by the name of Jugh to undertake those roving duties he used to relish. An encounter with a goblin ship on the high seas leads to Jugh's discovery of a book in goblin hands, a most matter that must be investigated. This single event leads to startling revelations that forewarns of a great evil that exists that is every bit as powerful as the Vault of All Known Knowledge, and whose presence in the Great Library may indeed result in The Destruction of the Books And perhaps far worse. At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.From Publishers WeeklyJust as aged Bilbo Baggins gives way to a new hero, Frodo, at the start of The Lord of the Rings, so does elderly Edgewick "Wick" Lamplighter, now a Grandmagister at Great Library, leave center stage to a youthful protégé, the pint-sized Juhg, in this Tolkienesque sequel, set nearly a century later, to Odom's The Rover (2001). In the tradition of Fritz Leiber's immortal Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, Juhg and his burly human friend, Raisho, set out on a series of fantastic adventures, centered on a search for a rare volume that Wick wants for the Vault of All Known Knowledge. The narrative moves along at a snappy pace, with much good humor, zest and color, but around halfway through, the action becomes repetitive and the fantasy effects heavy-handed. Nevertheless, the magic lies in the details, where books and wizards, both good and evil, glimmer. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistAlmost 100 years after the events of The Rover (2002), Edgewick Lamplighter is grandmagister at the Vault of All Known Knowledge, a secret repository of books rescued from destruction by the dreaded goblinkin. This time the protagonist is Jugh, another halfling, whom Wick rescued from goblin slavers and made his apprentice. Feeling an outsider on the island, Jugh ships out as a crew member on one of the ships that service and help protect the island. But when he discovers that a book is aboard a goblin ship, he manages with great difficulty and danger to retrieve it and take it back to the island. The book turns out to be designed to open a path for dark forces to invade the island and destroy the library. The battles are ferocious; the dark forces deliver a crushing blow and many deaths before being driven off, temporarily at least; and way is opened for further violence in the saga's next episode. As before, plenty of humor tempers the wild action. Sally EstesCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Views: 70
